Good morning, Court Theorists! ☕️☀️🍁
Today’s tennis mood: Sunny. And that’s all that matters.
Let’s tennis!
-Allen
🎾 On tap: We have achieved sun here in Montreal. And that means we’ll even get through the first-round matches today. Meanwhile, in Toronto, matches are fully back on track, even if somewhat rearranged. But it’s still all singles action today in both locations. A few notes:
Iga Swiatek is playing her first match in exactly a month, when she lost to Alex Eala at Wimbledon in the third round.
The same goes for Aryna Sabalenka, who hasn’t been in competition since losing to Naomi Osaka in the fourth round.
On the men’s side, the big question is whether or not Jack Draper will play in his first-round encounter against fellow lefty, Terence Atmane.
And, can Gabriel Diallo ride the home crowd high from yesterday’s spirited win once again against a tougher opponent in Luciano Darderi back-to-back days on center court?
🎾 A first: Alex Eala became the first Filipina champion on the WTA Tour on Monday after defeating Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 in a match that spread across two days.
What she said: “First and foremost, it’s an achievement for myself, it’s a personal achievement. I worked really hard and oh my gosh, winning a 500 is insane,” Eala said after the match. “It’s an incredible milestone for me, and at the beginning of the week there’s no way I would have thought that I would be owning this trophy. Even at the beginning of the year, it’s just, these things kind of creep up on you. I hold these moments really closely.”
The path: Eala may have ended the match with a bagel, but the path was anything but easy. After defeating Qinwen Zheng in the first round, it was seeds the rest of the way: Leylah Fernandez, Elina Svitolina, Naomi Osaka, and then Pegula.
New career high: As a first-time Washington player, she banked all 500 points, pushing her up eight spots to number 20 in the WTA rankings.
🎾 A sense of relief: That’s Taylor Fritz, who won the men’s title in Washington over Rafael Jodar, 7-6, 6-4. It was the same scoreline from their previous meeting in Delray Beach earlier this year.
What he said: “Thank you, guys, for everything,” Fritz said to his team during the trophy ceremony. “I have given this speech a lot recently but not as a winner, so it is nice to actually mean it a little bit more this time. Thank you so much for everything you do, staying on top of me all the time. I know it is not easy.”
The numbers: Fritz moved up two spots to number eight in the ATP rankings. Jodar jumped up nine places to another career-high ranking of 15.
Next: Will they both make it to Montreal for a fast turnaround from Washington to Montreal and then to Cincinnati? We’ll see about that.
🎾 One to watch: Martin Damm vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas (1st round - ATP 1000 - Montreal): Watch this one to see what happens. This match has the potential to be a truly fascinating contrast-of-styles battle. Or, it could be a total disaster in any number of ways. But with two qualifiers facing off, there’s a mental level playing field, plus the confidence of already having won a match. This should be fun.
The record: This will be the first time Martin Damm and Stefanos Tsitsipas face each other.
On the line: Neither player has points to defend. However, Damm is on a major upswing this season and just reached a career-high ranking of 100 this week (he also almost beat Ben Shelton last week in Washington). He wants to keep that winning feeling going. Meanwhile, Tsitsipas is keen to show that firing his father as his coach was the right move. An early exit is emphatically not part of the plan.
🎾 🏆 🎤 YOUR CALL
(Yesterday’s poll results: 64% of you wanted Rafa Jodar to defeat Taylor Fritz. Fritz won 7-6, 6-4. )
And that’s game.
